Hassan says that from the beginning there have been rumours that Tom’s motives were not clean. The rumour, it seems, is that Tom may have got a kick-back from FarmersCard.

Carlos was heartbroken. He couldn’t believe the fact that someone of Tom’s position would stoop to such a level. He was also very upset with FarmersCard. He asked me how anyone professional could ever pay bribes to get work done. I told him I couldn’t believe such things happened unless, in certain special conditions, the bribe actually lead to long term benefits in terms of strategy and business for the company involved. Carlos demanded to know of at least one such special condition. I told him not to get angry with me, but to get angry with the moral and ethical grey areas that proliferate the intellectual space within which modern business operates. Kurt agreed silently.

My problem still remained. Who would help me on my US housing crisis without asking too many questions?

Once again the answer had been in front of me all the time.

Casually, as if it was a thought experiment, I asked James Mair what he would do if he had to invest in the US housing market. Hypothetically speaking of course.

James spent two hours after lunch giving me a list of ways to invest in the housing market. He then ranked this list on the basis of risk, return and volatility. He then built a spreadsheet for me that I could use to make and keep track of investments that were automatically linked to data from websites. Finally he pulled out a list of top ten firms to invest.

Number one on the list was Bore Atlantic.

I thanked James profusely and ran outside to make a call.

I called the Isle of Man bastard again. I told him to invest in Bore Atlantic. He sounded relieved on the phone. He asked me if I was going to go all equity or buy any options. This I had not discussed with James. So then I did what I usually do when I am buying things. I asked him what was cheap and best. He laughed and said there was no such thing. (Now I was getting pissed off.) I told him to read out all possible Bore Atlantic options. It took five minutes.

At that very instant I saw Tom being accompanied out of the office by a bunch of security guard type fellows. All of them got into a car and drove at very high speed.

Fuck.